The revolution might be Ordn-ised

Good news in today’s Grauniad

 

Moves are afoot to press for free (or at least affordable) access to public sector information throughout Europe, with the UK taking the driving seat. Leading the charge is Carol Tullo, head of the Office of Public Sector Information.

 

If it comes to pass (and that remains a big IF for now), it would most notably affect sources like Ordnance Survey which, if it became affordable (or even free) could in turn revolutionise the potential for investigative research out here in blogspace, not to mention the head-spinning possibilities for mashups.

 

Fingers crossed all goes to plan – have to say I’m a really big fan of the Free Our Data campaign, and hope this movement builds real momentum.

 

And while we’re all about brown-nosing The Guardian, I only just noticed something on this article I haven’t seen either in their site before, or on any other news site – the Article History option.  Click on the link above the main pic, and you get a precis of the article’s editing timeline, a cross-reference with the hard copy version, and other details of its provenance.

 

Given our increasing reliance on online research, the tendency within online search away from home pages and other identifiable hubs, not to mention the tendency in some feed readers toward publishing the first draft of an entry,  its wonderfully reassuring to have a crumb trail back through an article’s origins like this.

Tags: Free our Data, online mapping, online research, online sources, Ordnance Survey